SWPP wins national award for nature protection
Morag Angus, Sameed Asghar, Nick Sanderson, Matt Staniek, winners at CNP Awards. Credit: Dawn Brown CNP
The South West Peatland Partnership has received a prestigious award for their ongoing work to restore vital peatland habitat in Exmoor and Dartmoor National Parks. On Wednesday 12th July, SWPP attended the House of Commons to an award ceremony hosted by the Campaign For National Parks and received the National Park Nature Award, sponsored by WWF-UK and presented by Landscape Minister Trudy Harrison.
Morag Angus, SWPP Manager said of the win:
“On behalf of the whole partnership and everyone who’s been working for hours and hours, for years and years behind the scenes, it’s fantastic to get this award and get the recognition for peatlands in National Parks. This work would not be possible without the collaborative efforts of government agencies, businesses, landowners, charities, farmers & commoners working together across Dartmoor and Exmoor to leave peatlands in a better state, for all our futures. “
The event gave us an opportunity to share our work with others working on so many inspirational projects right across the National Parks of England and Wales. As well as the award, SWPP was pleased to receive an £1,000 grant from Campaign for National Parks, kindly made as a prize towards our work. The Campaign for National Parks, hosts of the Awards said:
“The South West Peatland Partnership showed a true dedication to landscape scale nature recovery which is so vital in tackling the climate crisis. The collaborative effort is truly inspiring and they are very deserving of the National Park Nature Award, we can’t wait to see the progress the Partnership will continue to make.”
Peatlands are vital for their role in carbon storage, water quality, archaeology, wildlife and plant habitat, and spaces for grazing livestock and recreation. Despite covering only 3% of the world’s land surface, peatlands contain a huge 30% of global soil carbon, twice the amount found in Earth’s forests.
However 87% of peatlands are dried or degraded, due to years of draining, burning, mining or extraction (England Peat Action Plan, 2021). University of Exeter research estimates that less than 1% of Dartmoor’s blanket bog is still functionally intact (Mires on the Moors, Science and Evidence Report, 2020).
It’s why we do what we do, working together to champion peatlands and restore over 2,500 hectares of dried and degraded peatland across Exmoor, Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor and West Penwith before 2025. The works taking place aim to keep water in the landscape, helping to raise the water table and prevent further erosion to the peat, diversify wildlife habitat and reduce runoff from the moors.
With thanks as always to the partner organisations, funders, staff, landowners., contractors, commoners and farmers, without whom our vital work would not be possible.
